In Wales Calan Mai or Calan Haf was a time for celebration and festivities as it signified the beginning of summer.

* Wales has a wealth of May Day customs and traditions. Many date from the time of the Druids, such as the lighting of fires for Beli Mawr, Celtic god of Fire and sun, purification, science, fertility, crops and success, known as the festival of Beltaine

* 'Spirit nights', or ysprydnos, took place on May Eve. It was a night when the world of the supernatural was closest to the real world.

* May Day was the point in the year when herds would be turned out to pasture.

* Villagers would gather hawthorn branches and flowers to decorate the outside of their houses to celebrate the new growth and fertility of the new season, but it was believed to be unlucky to bring them into the house

* The maypole played a central role in Welsh May Day tradition. in south Wales it was called 'codi'r fedwen', 'raising the birch', the maypole was painted different colours and the dancers would wrap ribbons around it, then it would be raised and the dancing would begin. In north Wales it was called 'y gangen haf', the summer branch and was often decorated with silver watches and spoons. Young men dressed in white and decorated with ribbons would then sing and dance around it as it was carried by another man called the Cadi.

* May Day was the time that the twmpath chwarae (the village green) was opened, where villagers would gather in the evenings to dance and play sports. A mound was prepared and decorated with oak branches on top of which a fiddler or harpist would sit and play.

* A 12th century, poem celebrating Calan haf, welcoming the new season

The beginning of summer, fairest season;

Noisy are the birds, green the woods,

The ploughs are in the furrow, the ox at work,

Green the sea, the lands are many-coloured.

Today is the feast day of Saint Brioc

Saint Brioc c.520 was from Ceredigion and became the first Abbot of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany. He is known to have travelled through the areas of modern day Gloucestershire and Cornwall.

On 1st May 1992 - The Ebbw Vale Garden Festival opened and attracted over two million visitors to the town.

The National Garden Festivals were a Government initiative to help areas adversely affected by the decline of heavy industry. They were held biannually , with the first being held in Liverpool in 1984 and subsequent festivals being held in Stoke on Trent, Glasgow, Gateshead and Ebbw Vale. They were attended by millions of visitors, but were not generally successful in attracting long-term investment for the affected areas.

The first ever edition of the Western Mail was printed on May 1, 1869.

The Western Mail was founded in Cardiff by John Crichton - Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, it describes itself as "the national newspaper of Wales" although it has a very limited circulation in North Wales.

Born this day 1957 in Gorseinon.

Richard Moriarty , former Wales rugby international and captain, best remembered for captaining Wales to third place in the i naugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, which is, to date, the best performance by Wales in a Rugby World Cup.